Chimpanzees, Conservation, and Community: an Analysis of the Jane Goodall Institute’S Triangle Approach
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CHIMPANZEES, CONSERVATION, AND COMMUNITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE’S TRIANGLE APPROACH by Briana Litchholt A capstone submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Policy Baltimore, Maryland May 2021 © 2021 Briana Litchholt All Rights Reserved Abstract The illegal trafficking of great apes is a complex, multi-billion dollar industry that has resulted in dwindling wild chimpanzee populations through activities such as poaching for bushmeat and the pet trade. The Jane Goodall Institute created an integrative strategy called the Triangle Approach to combat great ape trafficking and promote the conservation of chimpanzees. This paper synthesizes information on each aspect of the Triangle Approach, as well as its successes, through data provided by the Jane Goodall Institute and interviews with staff and directors. The three strategies of the Triangle Approach are environmental education and awareness, law enforcement, and chimpanzee sanctuary work. This holistic approach has informed citizens on the illegality of wildlife trafficking and its harm to chimpanzees through leadership sessions, billboards, television shows, and radio broadcasts. Additionally, the Triangle Approach integrates the best-in-class welfare standards of chimpanzee sanctuaries that have contributed to knowledge on chimpanzee health and behavior, as well as the creation of a novel standard welfare index to ensure that chimpanzees in captivity are receiving the best possible care. Overall, this unique strategy has promoted the conservation of chimpanzees, improved captive welfare of great apes, and serves as a model for other organizations looking to effectively tackle the root causes of wildlife trafficking. Advisors: Dr. Jerry Burgess (JHU); Ashley Sullivan (JGI) Keywords: Chimpanzee conservation, chimpanzee sanctuary, community-based conservation, great ape trafficking ii “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” -Dr. Jane Goodall iii Acknowledgements My thesis would not have been possible without the help from many people. I am extremely grateful to the staff at the Jane Goodall Institute for the opportunity to write about a topic I am so passionate about. Specifically, I would like to thank Rebeca Atencia, Marc Fourrier, Ashley Sullivan, and Shawn Sweeney for their time, guidance, and insights about working with JGI. They played a critical role in my success, providing me with sources, stories, and data that supported my thesis. I would also like to extend a thank you to Dr. Jerry Burgess and Dr. Alan Manville at Johns Hopkins University for their invaluable feedback throughout the editing process. Their mentorship helped me envision how my time at Hopkins fits in with my greater career goals in conservation biology. And lastly, a thank you to my family and friends at Hopkins and beyond for their constant encouragement. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Tables v List of Figures vi List of Abbreviations vii I. Introduction 1 Approaches and Recommendations to Conservation Efforts 3 II. The Triangle Approach 5 III. Education and Awareness 7 Environmental Education and Improving Livelihoods 7 Billboard Campaign 8 Television and Radio Broadcasts 9 IV. Law Enforcement 10 V. Great Ape Welfare 11 A. Metrics for Evaluation Welfare 11 Great Ape Welfare Index 12 Chimpanzee Welfare Index 12 Chimpanzee Welfare in the United States 15 B. Sanctuaries 16 Pan African Sanctuary Alliance 16 Response to COVID-19 17 Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center 18 Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection 23 VI. Discussion 25 A. Research 27 Cardiovascular Health 27 Cooperative Decision Making 28 B. Welfare 29 George’s Story 29 Wounda’s Story 30 VII. Conclusion 30 VIII. References 33 v List of Tables Table 1: Chimpanzee Welfare Index Criteria 14 Table 2: Demographics of Chimpanzees at the Tchimpounga Nature Reserve 22 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Chimpanzee Range Across Africa 2 Figure 2: Visual of the Triangle Approach 6 Figure 3: Billboard from JGI’s Billboard Campaign 9 Figure 4: Tchimpounga Nature Reserve 19 vii List of Abbreviations CWI Chimpanzee Welfare Index GAWI Great Ape Welfare Index IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature JGI Jane Goodall Institute LCRP Liberia Chimpanzee PASA Pan African Sanctuary Alliance RoC Republic of the Congo TCRC Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization USDA United States Department of Agriculture viii I. Introduction Environmental crime is one of the most prominent and pressing illegal activities worldwide. The trafficking of great apes including chimpanzees is currently a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry, and is one of the three major threats to chimpanzee populations today, in addition to deforestation and disease (Stiles et al 2013). Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are only found in central and west Africa, where they inhabit tropical rainforests (Figure 1). Chimpanzees have an average lifespan of 40 years, while some chimpanzees can live to 60 or more years. Their populations have dwindled to less than 300,000 individuals, classifying them as an endangered species at risk for extinction within the next 100 years. Adult chimpanzees are poached for bushmeat, while their infants are stolen and sold illegally as pets or for entertainment. This is fueled in part by food insecurity in countries across Africa, specifically the Republic of the Congo, in which lack of protein sources such as cattle lead citizens to turn to other sources of protein to supplement their diet, such as bushmeat (PASA 2020). Another driver of trade is international demand for chimpanzees as pets or entertainers, which contributes to a global syndicate system with local communities usually getting involved in illegal poaching for monetary gain. This trade has negative impacts not only on the livelihood of these primates, but on the overall biodiversity of the ecosystems they inhabit. Removing these animals from their habitats makes them incapable of fulfilling their ecological niches. Chimpanzees fulfill the specialized role of seed dispersers, as they disperse seeds that are too large for other organisms to swallow. Changes in chimpanzee populations as a result of trafficking can also negatively impact the food web. Figure 1 Chimpanzee range across Africa. Chimpanzees inhabit the following countries: Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi. The Tchimpounga Nature Reserve, managed by the Jane Goodall Institute, is designated by the purple pinpoint. Deforestation and the loss of great ape habitat is another major threat to chimpanzee populations because it puts humans and great apes in close proximity, which is one root cause of wildlife trafficking. It is predicted that less than 10% of great ape habitat will remain by 2030 (Stiles et al 2013). This causes fragmentation of chimpanzee populations, creating another barrier that makes it difficult for them to breed. When coupled with a slow reproductive rate, this can prove challenging for chimpanzees to sustain their dwindling populations, as it takes an average of 15 years for an individual to be replaced as a breeding member of a chimpanzee group (PASA 2020). Previously, the great ape trafficking industry has been driven by environmental threats 2 such as deforestation, but there has been a shift in recent years to increased demand from illicit international trade as one of its main drivers. Furthermore, the close proximity of humans and great apes makes disease transmission more likely. Populations of chimpanzees and gorillas that live in close proximity to humans have been found to have gastrointestinal E. coli and other bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics that can treat these bacteria in humans, but in the case of some parasites, great apes are unable to recover unless treated with antibiotics (Gilardi et al 2015). Diseases and bacteria can make great apes more susceptible to other infections, as well as environmental and social stressors. In other words, habitat destruction puts great apes at greater risk for disease transmission from humans, which has the ability to decimate populations of great apes if unable to be treated. Approaches and Recommendations to Conservation Efforts The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommend focusing conservation efforts on organized trafficking, law enforcement, and consumer demand. Concentrated efforts to address organized trafficking include deeper investigations into instigators and higher-level prosecutions for those involved in wildlife trafficking. These measures would be supported by law enforcement, who would enforce changes to national and international laws regarding great apes, as well as contribute to anti-corruption efforts and databases to track trends of illegal great ape trade (Stiles et al 2013). The last piece of the UNEP and UNESCO recommendations works to deter consumer demand by eliminating the use of great apes for entertainment and advertising. Overall, their recommendations focus on upholding laws and regulations as a means of accountability